British Highways and Byways from a Motor Car: Being a Record of a Five Thousand Mile Tour in England, Wales and ScotlandMurphy, Thos. D. (Thomas Dowler)
History
British Highways and Byways from a Motor Car: Being a Record of a Five Thousand Mile Tour in England, Wales and Scotland
Murphy, Thos. D. (Thomas Dowler)
Great Britain -- Description and travel; Great Britain -- Maps
One must be well posted on his route when touring Britain or he will
pass many things of note in sublime ignorance of their existence. Even
the road-book is not an infallible guide, for we first knew that we were
passing through Chawton when the postoffice sign, on the main street of
a straggling village, arrested our attention. We were thus reminded that
in this quiet little place the inimitable Jane Austin had lived and
produced her most notable novels, which are far more appreciated now
than in the lifetime of the authoress. An old woman of whom we inquired
pointed out the house--a large square building with tiled roof, now used
as the home of a workingmen's club. Less than two miles from Chawton,
though not on the Winchester road, is Selborne, the home of Gilbert
White, the naturalist, and famed as one of the quaintest and most
retired villages in Hampshire.
But one would linger long on the way if he paused at every landmark on
the Southampton road. We had already loitered in the short distance
which we had traveled until it was growing late, and with open throttle
our car rapidly covered the last twenty miles of the fine road leading
into Winchester.
From an historical point of view, no town in the Kingdom surpasses the
proud old city of Winchester. The Saxon capital still remembers her
ancient splendor and it was with a manifest touch of pride that the old
verger who guided us through the cathedral dwelt on the long line of
kings who had reigned at Winchester before the Norman conquest. To him,
London at best was only an upstart and an usurper. Why,
"When Oxford was shambles
And Westminster was brambles,
Winchester was in her glory."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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